The Pew Note
@pewnote.bsky.social
Lay leader • Facilitator • Culture Critic • Parishioner at Trinity Episcopal Church, Hartford • Mom of twins • Retired Deputy Fire Marshal • Notes about answering a call without a collar.
A reflection on three Sundays away from Trinity, capped by a visit to Hartford's oldest African-American congregation, and zero guilt. What "The Episcopal Church Welcomes You" really means when you're the one who's been gone.
Nobody's Counting
Three Sundays away from my own parish taught me what that lawn sign actually means.
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Every Sunday, we end the same way: 'Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.' We mean it. Vestry service is one of the places the church actually prepares you to do that, inside the parish and far beyond it.
The Vestry as Leadership School
Why saying yes to your parish might be the best leadership decision you make
substack.com
Most of us walk right past them. The flowers on the altar, the person who placed them, the hours of quiet work behind what you see on Sunday morning. That's a ministry. And it deserves to be named.
The Quiet Saints in Every Congrgation
The ministry most of us walk right past
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The parking lot has space. The choir is down to six. The coffee hour is a box of store-bought cookies. But the people who show up in August when they could be at the beach? Those are my people!
Summer Church
Parish parking gets easier in July
substack.com
It's not easy to hear "no." It changes our mindset and even the narrative we have of ourselves. "No" also isn't easy to say, but it's the best answer to give. How do you handle "no" when you hear it?
When the Answer Is "no."
When ministry doesn't go the way you hoped
pewnote.com
My mom sat on a chair in the pew of Trinity, looked at the bulletin, and asked: “They tell you what to pray too?” It’s a fair question. Here’s what I told her, eventually.
Prayers Someone Else Wrote
A charismatic mom, an Episcopal daughter, and one very good question
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I'm not a cradle Episcopalian. I was brought up in a denomination that values (among other things) navigating the bible and memorizing scripture. Yet, here I am with a bulletin in my hand on Sundays. This article is an interesting one from The Average Episcopalian.
Episcopalians Don't Know Their Bible, but Does It Really Matter?
I guess I'm gonna go there.
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The metal folding chair has been in that parish hall for about fifty years. It has held a lot of people through a lot of things. The coffee is always a little too hot or not quite hot enough. People drink it anyway. Because they’re staying. Church is in the parish hall, too. #Episcopal
The Original Fire Service I spent 25 years in fire service. We had job descriptions. The disciples didn't. They walked out of that upper room filled with something they couldn't explain, speaking to people they hadn't planned for. Pentecost was everyone's first day. It still is.
The Original Fire Service
Pentecost was everyone's first day.
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Every parish has a version of this: The thing visitors find weird and members couldn't imagine giving up. That's often where the actual church lives. Trinity, Hartford has the most robust passing of the peace. Note: quirk vs. action that hurts. One builds community. The other tears it down.
I was going to post about how good it feels to know that God is good. All the time. I also know that same phrase distances me from people who don't always feel God's love.
The ministry nobody calls ministry: the phone call to check in, the errand you ran because someone needed it, the showing up when you’d rather not. That’s real work. That’s sometimes what holds everything together.
The church picked up a quiet idea over time: that a real calling means becoming ordained. Some laypeople carry that around without even realizing it. But it's just not true. This week’s note is about the vocation you already carry.
You Don't Have to Be Ordained to Have a Calling
“Have you thought about ordination?” That’s the first question asked when someone starts showing up differently, serving more intentionally, reading Sunday scriptures on their own time.
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I'm just starting out and look forward to sharing more on lay leadership and discernment, hoping that people will be inspired to do more, even without a collar! open.substack.com/pub/pewnote
The Pew Note | Substack
Notes about discernment, lay leadership, and answering a call without a collar. Click to read The Pew Note, a Substack publication. Launched 6 days ago.
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Can clergy wellness in a parish happen without equipping lay leaders in the ministries of formation, pastoral care, preaching, and church leadership?
I didn’t trust my spiritual gifts for years. Not because I wasn’t capable, but because nobody had asked me about them. Once someone named what I could offer, everything shifted. Still learning to believe it.
The Monday after my first Sunday at Trinity, Hartford, the priest emailed asking about my spiritual gifts. Nobody had asked before. Most of you haven't been asked either. Now I ask. Maybe you should too.
